This Spring was the first time we have ever run 2 ThinkLab™ cohorts at once: one at TechFW and one at Pegasus Park. And we are pleased to announce that they were a success!
We are beyond impressed by the individuals in our Spring ThinkLab™ startup accelerator cohorts. They did the hard work of challenging assumptions and diving into their business models.
Meet the graduates of the Spring 2021 ThinkLab Startup Accelerator cohorts:
Whitney Robinson
Whitney Robinson is the current owner of Big Horse Marketing and has experience in all the aspects of marketing and brand development. Robinson has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and is highly skilled in Direct Marketing, Marketing Strategy,
Social Media, Email Marketing and more.
Her Company - Head to Vegas
Our technology will allow users who are planning to travel to Las Vegas to book and prepay in advance for all aspects of their trip. By utilizing an RFID tag once travelers arrive at their destination they will be essentially cashless. We will also utilize existing APIs and will function as a small-scale online travel aggregate to research and book hotels, dining, entertainment, etc based on their reason for travel.
Terry (pictured) and Kim Pallister
Terry Pallister is an experienced senior marketing executive with many successful companies. Pallister is currently a VP of Manufacturing and Development at Diversified Foods Inc. He is a team-focused executive decision-maker with excellent problem-solving skills.
Their Company
A patient repositioning device providing one individual ease of use to move an immobile patient toward the headboard of a standard hospital bed. The current concept prototype is manual, with plans to add various automation solutions.
Nana Mireku, MD, FACAAI, FAAAAI
Nana Mireku is a Board Certified Allergist that helps educate others suffering from allergies like herself. She specializes in food allergies, asthma, eczema, and seasonal allergies. She wants to help find relief for people with allergies and enjoys serving her patients.
Her Company - AllergenIQ
AllergenIQ offers one of the first nationwide telemedicine services providing diagnosis and treatment for patients with allergies. The business will offer a variety of allergy services, including online telemedicine consulting.
Jason McAlister
Jason McAlister served in the US Marine Corps for 15 years, and another 8 years in the US Navy. He is the Co-Founder and President at Spartan Training & Performance. McAlister has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and police science from the University of Nevada. He also has been a mission trip leader in a Christian relief fund.
His Company - Wraith Technologies
Wraith Technologies helps companies drive innovation and achieve their dreams by providing a highly skilled, self-organizing, and cross-functional team that purposefully executes at an elite level through client engagement, constant communication, rapid prototyping, iterative development, design thinking and agile DevOps.
Kobin Caddick
Kobin Caddick is the founder and president at Element Lab. He graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with a bachelor’s in biological sciences. Caddick has received endorsements for troubleshooting and instrumentation.
His Company - Element Lab
Element Lab was founded with a single mission: "We Love Hardware". With its passion of Hardware and its strong R&D skills and out-of-the-box thinking, it helps you design your concept ideas. It has a wealth of manufacturing management experience in getting products to market.
Donald Anderson, MBA, PhD
Dr. Anderson is the current CEO of Cytolytics Life Science. He attended Cornell University for both undergraduate and doctoral degrees. He studied Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology with a concentration in Biophysics and Chemical Biology. He also received an MBA in Strategic Management from the University of North Texas. He did his postdoctoral work in the Nobel Prize-winning lab of Brown and Goldstein before moving on to Peloton Therapeutics. Peloton Therapeutics sold to Merck and Co., Inc. in 2019 for $2.2 billion. Dr. Anderson worked with Merck as the Clinical, Legal, and Operations Liaison. Dr. Anderson founded Cytolytics in 2019 and focuses on taking Texas-based discoveries to market. He has been involved in the creation of several entities including Radiant LifeTech, etiraRX, Rhema LifeScience, Torch Pharma, and Accelsior Therapeutics.
His Company - Cytolytics
An investigational gene therapy to treat fatty liver disease. The technology has the potential to end metabolic dysregulation associated with the disease and protect the patient from further metabolic disruptions.
Brenden Park
Brenden is a graduate student researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He is a protein biochemist specializing in protein kinases. He graduated from the University of California San Diego with a bachelor’s in biochemistry.
His Company - SiDBait Technologies
Developing a biochemical approach to advance drug discovery by improving the identification of small molecule targets. This approach may be applied to finding new therapies and improving existing treatments.
Carlos Trigo, MD
Carlos Trigo is an emergency medicine physician at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He graduated from the University of San Francisco with a bachelor’s degree then he went on to do his residency and fellowship at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Nimay Kulkarni
Nimay Kulkarni is a medical student and has been a research assistant. He went to the University of Pennsylvania and got his bachelor’s in bioengineering and biomedical engineering. Some of his skills include Microsoft Office, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. He is trilingual, speaking English, Hindi and Marathi.
Their Company - SO!O
Developing an ultrasound probe holder that allows a physician to install the required ultrasound probe cover to perform guided procedures under sterile conditions.
Filip Dybowski
Filip Dybowski is a pharmacist and molecular psychiatry researcher. His team is building the fundamentals of psychiatric patient care through research of schizophrenic psychosis mechanisms and treatment options employing animal models. Dybowski has a strong interest in problem-solving.
Anna Savelyeva, PhD
Anna Savelyeva is a postdoctoral research scientist at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She is a cancer biologist by training and focuses her efforts on novel methods for diagnostics and treatment of cancer. In addition to her research, she served as a pro bono consultant for several DFW biotech start-ups and led the Consulting Club at UT Southwestern which mission is to help advanced degree professionals to develop business acumen. Through her work, Anna wants to improve the quality of people’s life. Just like Lyda Hill, Anna also believes that “science is the key”.
Their Company
Licensing technology to develop a novel nanoparticle formulation for targeted gene therapy of severe lung condition, acute respiratory distress syndrome, which has a 40% mortality rate. The new formulation has the potential to stimulate lung tissue regeneration and reduce inflammation which will reduce the recovery timeline.
Anastasia Bobilev, PhD
Anastasia Bobilev is a neuroscientist. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s in Cognitive Science and a PhD in Neuroscience and is completing her postdoctoral training at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Molecular Psychiatry. She is a dedicated volunteer in women in STEM initiatives, community outreach and mental health advocacy.
Tezin Walji
Tezin Walji is a doctoral candidate at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She is a problem solver, science communicator and blog writer. In addition to her research, Tezin serves on the board of several committees at UTSW and completed an internship with the Office of Technology Development at UTSW. Her lifelong passion is to have effective science communication, increase science literacy and connect with others through blogging. In addition to mentoring young first-generation female scientists, Tezin has been exploring the world of entrepreneurship and enjoys working in a team to build a vision to improve disease outcomes.
Their company:
Anastasia and Tezin are licensing technology to improve the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric patients, with the goal of integrating cutting-edge biomarkers into clinical trials to develop new therapeutics.
Lukas Farbiak, PhD
Lukas Farbiak is a PhD candidate at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is getting his PhD in biomedical engineering and Farbiak is focusing his research and studies on bioengineered nanoparticle-based cancer and genetic disease therapeutics. He got his bachelor's in Baylor of neurobiology and neurosciences. He is both a mentor and volunteer.
His Company
Lukas is licensing technology to develop vascular trapping sheaths and guide catheters for use in endovascular interventions and diagnostic angiography.
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TechFW is honored to be a part of their journey as many of them continue to grow their businesses and expand. Their receptivity to feedback has made it an absolute joy.
Interested in being a part of a ThinkLab Fall cohort? Save these start dates:
ThinkLab at Pegasus Park: 9/14
ThinkLab at TechFW: 9/15